Making Conservatives Cringe Since 1977
I'm not Liberal, I'm paying attention.17 March 2006
Operation Swarmer, or Operation Photo op?
From day one this has been the Photo Op Presidency. There is nothing of substance even remotely related to Administration policy or action. Snake oil salesmen, every last member of every cabinet and political appointment. It’s almost as if this has all been some bizarre experiment in absenteeism. Is that what Conservatives mean--are they speaking of this in code--when they ramble on about small government? And the glue that holds it all together is their preternatural talent to manipulate the press and thereby the American people.
Examples A & B:
On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled
Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing
By BRIAN BENNETT/AL JALLAM
The press, flown in from Baghdad to this agricultural gridiron northeast of Samarra, huddled around the Iraqi officials and U.S. Army commanders who explained that the "largest air assault since 2003" in Iraq using over 50 helicopters to put 1500 Iraqi and U.S. troops on the ground had netted 48 suspected insurgents, 17 of which had already been cleared and released. The area, explained the officials, has long been suspected of being used as a base for insurgents operating in and around Samarra, the city north of Baghdad where the bombing of a sacred shrine recently sparked a wave of sectarian violence. But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.'Operation Swarmer' Underwhelming So Far NewsHounds - March 17, 2006 Juan Cole:
"This Samarra operation is probably mainly a political act. The US generals are attempting to demonstrate to their Shiite allies that they take seriously the terror attack on the Askari Shrine on Feb. 22. Presumably they are also attempting to ensure that if the shrine is rebuilt, it won't just be blown up again. Short of pulling a Fallujah on Samarra, however-- which would involve emptying the city and then destroying it-- it is difficult to see how the US/ Iraqi government forces can prevail. Even then, they would just face sullen suicide bombers thereafter, as has happened in Fallujah, where 2/3s of the buildings were damaged and a large part of the population permanently dispossessed. "Frankly, the Samarra "Operation Swarm" is probably also meant to give the impression of progress or at least of activity in Iraq, where the political process is stalled and the guerrillas seem to strike at will, with increasing political success."
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In fact about the only time I think they put any effort into anything is during one PR blitz or another. It's like that person, you know him/her, the one that puts more effort in to coming up with an excuse than doing what they were suppose to be doing in the first place. That's the stuff these Bushies are made of, that's their glue. But that glue is, I don't know...FUCKING COMING UNGLUED! That's right, a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder. "...and God said of his favorite son, he shall be laid low, and come unraveled in the fifth year of his reign..."
Who better to leave you with the last word than Jon Stewart:
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